Fashion of fasting

Fashion of fasting
Fasting is becoming fashionable in India now. After Anna Hazare’s mammoth fast for 12 days, the chief minister of Gujarat Mr Narendra Modi has commenced a fast for three days, for communal harmony. Through this fast, he is also trying to revamp his brand image which was tarnished in the 2002 Godhra communal riots. Not to be outdone a Congress leader in Gujarat, Shankarsinh Vaghela has also gone on fast, six kilometres away from the air-conditioned venue of Mr Modi’s fast, to protest against Mr Modi! Indian politics is being reduced to a two-penny farce! I urge all politicians in India to go on a long, one-month fast. Most of them are overweight any way, and it will help them shed a few kilograms of weight. Also the country will save some food which could be given to the poor, or if nothing else, all this fasting could reduce the prices of scarce food grains in India.
 —Rajendra K Aneja, via email from Dubai

II
In his second letter, on the eve of his three-day fast, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi expressed gratefulness to all those who pointed out his genuine mistakes during last 10 years. Now he realised that the pain of each and every citizen of Gujarat is his own pain. But the big question is Mr. Modi truly realised his mistakes (even after 9 years) or he is a wolf in sheep’s skin? What is the necessity for such gimmicks in his 62and birthday drama by wasting crores of public exchequers in the name of the fast at Gujarat University convention centre in Ahmedabad? Is he trying to project himself as new ‘avatar’ of secularism? Modi should not forget that India is not Gujarat (known as
 ‘Hindu laboratory’ state) and India’s voters are not fool that they will cast their vote to elect India’s next Prime Minister on 2014, a man from whom the blood stains of the riot having not yet been cleansed. Whether his three-day fast of Sadbhavna Mission may reduce the fat in his body, Modi will be a big liability if he’s projected as a national leader for Bharatiya Janata Party.
 —Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee, Faridabad

Where’s the fuel?
This refers to the report “Petrol prices up by Rs.3.14 a litre”(DNA, September 16) where faced with the rising under recoveries and the continuing upward trend in the international crude oil prices. The oil marketing companies have announced another increase. It is a rude shock to the common man, already reeling under high food prices. From a consumer’s point of view, we must learn to live with the reality of volatile fuel prices. What about alternative sources of fuel?
—Valli S Rajan, Kalyan

Price rise will hit seniors
Being a senior citizen I have never experienced the kind of price rise we have seen during the last two years. Prices of all items required for day to day life including milk, vegetables oil, spices etc, have doubled and in some cases even trebled. Now government has announced an increase in petrol prices. An increase in the cost of cooking gas is on the cards. Surely this will have a cascading effect on prices. In the past prices used to get stabilised to the original level after two or three months but now it is on an upward path. The explanation given by the government is that price rise and inflation is a global phenomenon. After globalisation and financial reforms interest rates on fixed deposits suddenly came down to 7.5 to 8 per cent. Government announced a new scheme called ‘Senior citizens savings scheme’ as a social security measure to mitigate the hardships faced by seniors due to fall in interest rates. But the 9 per cent interest under SCSS remained constant in spite of phenomenal increase in prices. It is high time government revises the interest on SCSS to atleast 12 per cent.
—Devadas Menon, via email

Save senior citizens
Apropos ‘ Sixth senior citizen murdered in city’ (DNA, September 17), it is highly deplorable that helpless senior citizens are increasingly becoming easy targets for criminals who keep track of them and strike with impunity. It is high time the state Home minister, RR Patil activated the helpline started for them in 2003 by AN Roy, the then police chief but reportedly lying dysfunctional for the past six months. More than this, the cooperative housing societies should be directed to get the senior citizens living in their premises registered along with information on their domestic helps. It is also necessary for the police to locate the sons/daughters of these people and advise them to keep in touch with their parents on a daily basis.
—Dr V Subramanyan, Dombivli